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Can we trust fact checking services?

Reputable ones – yes. How do we know a fact checking service is reputable and trustworthy? The sites that have a good track record for doing their job very well and have a reputation to uphold are the ones you will want to use. Some of the best are listed on this website’s Resources page. False fact checkers exist on social media and fringe apps like Telegram! You can avoid getting confused by using the high-quality fact checkers listed on my Resources page or in this link to the college of Staten Island the City University of New York Library. Many maintain non partisanship by employing members of both American political parties, or in the the case of Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network, “staffers cannot be members of political parties nor publicly support candidates for elected office”.

Slow down your sharing of information

“Provoking outrage remains a common goal of misinformation purveyors. People are generally better at detecting misinformation when they slow down and engage their logical, critical faculties. But strong emotions quickly circumvent these higher-order abilities and cause people to like and share online content too quickly. Outrage is one of the most effective emotional targets that purveyors of misinformation can use to get their messages to spread widely. Whether it’s claims that wildly exaggerate runaway gas prices or inflation, or posts designed to galvanize antipathy for a particular public figure, outrage continues to prove itself a major vulnerability in people’s information defenses.” This is a direct quote from the News Literacy Project’s newsletter May 23, 2022 edition of The Sift titled Viral Rumor Rundown. You can get a free subscription to this helpful newsletter from the News Literacy Project delivered to your inbox by clicking on Resources from the homepage of this website. Find the News Literacy Project and click into that. While you are there, check out the many valuable resources they offer.

Protect yourself against misinformation/disinformation

Be sure to fact check claims about biolabs in Ukraine and other rumors trending on social media. Several reputable fact checking services are linked on the Resources page of this website. Remember to be skeptical until you have done some verification! Also, if you get most of your news and information from social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Whats App, etc.), consider switching to news sources that employ journalistic standards and have a board of editors. If you have a favorite news show that is always one-sided, consider fact checking their claims.